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Monday, 10 August 2015

Taiwan is working toward lifting a ban on food imports from Japanese
prefectures affected by the 2011 meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi
nuclear power plant, but the timeline will depend on further evaluations
by health authorities, Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin (林永樂) said
yesterday.

“I believe we are moving in that direction,” Lin said
in response to questions on whether Taiwan is working toward lifting the
ban on Japanese products from areas affected by the nuclear disaster.

Since
Taiwan tightened regulations on imported Japanese food on May 15, “to
date there have been no safety concerns associated with food products
imported from Japan,” Lin said.

Lin said the Ministry of Health
and Welfare is conducting further assessments and the government is also
looking at how other countries have been dealing with the situation.

“Basically,
the vast majority of countries are moving toward lifting restrictions,
but we still hope that the Ministry of Health and Welfare can give a
clear explanation of [the results of] its assessments at an appropriate
time,” Lin said.
Even if the ban is lifted, Lin added, the new regulations implemented in May are to continue.

The
new measures require Japanese food product importers to present
certificates that show the place of origin of their products and
radiation inspection results for certain types of products, such as tea,
baby food and aquaculture products.

The new regulations were
imposed after it was found in March that products from five restricted
areas in Japan had made their way into Taiwan through the use of false
labels.

Taiwan currently bans food imports from the Japanese
prefectures of Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Chiba, which were
affected by a meltdown in March 2011 after Japan was struck by a
disastrous earthquake and tsunami.